Blizzard Watch Podcast

BlizzCon just wrapped, and so there is so much to talk about we couldn't pack it all into an hour. We spent around an hour on WoW Forever, the new Classic+ that was rumored and is now coming to fruition with a sort-of alternate history. There was a lot of Midnight news too, including Talebound, which is an upcoming alt mode a la Plunderstorm. We got a small tidbit from The Last Titan, we saw Holly Longdale's impeccable outfit -- and that was just all the WoW stuff! No wait, it wasn't. There's also going to be Undead Paladins, to tie in to both a Warcraft 3 expansion and Wrath of the Lich KingRemix, the portmanteau for which is still up in the air (I lean toward Wremix, but I've seen a few ReLiches too).

There were two very long-range reveals for Diablo 5 and StarCraft, not to mention a Netflix Diablo series with no ETA at all. The Hearthstone Battlegrounds new Anomaly family and the next Overwatch season (and next hero Doctrine) release next week though, for a little balance. The Hearthstone expansion Reign of the Black Empire is a bit further off, though, slated for October.

Did I forget anything? Something that a frequent guest host might find terribly exciting, like a new hero for Heroes of the Storm? Eh, probably not. I'd remember something like that.

Oh! Amazons! For Diablo 4! Liz was pretty excited about that. That must've been it.
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This week we're counting it down til BlizzCon, which is happening any minute now. Editor-in-chief Liz talks a little strategy for our coverage, while we're mostly just excited for what we may see. Luckily, the World of Warcraft team had a few announcements up their sleeves, including a patch 12.1.5 preview, a new gold sink mount, and Winds of Mysterious Fortune, which will award you free tendies just for logging in! I'd say that'll hold us for now, but we all know those tendies are as good as spent.

Plus, did you know Blizzard isn't the only company making video games? It's true! This week the Ocarina of Timeremake was announced, and Link looks uncanny and moist. Joe's favorite team shooter Marvel Rivals announced a new season featuring a hero which is actually a villain as the star.
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If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free!
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The BlizzCon schedule is now live! That means the podcast crew, joined by resident Diablo maven Liz Patt, are breaking it all down. We start with discussing the schedule itself, and then move into the wild speculation we do best. The schedule also includes times and channels for watching BlizzCon on Twitch, which also includes a ton of Drops and other items you can earn from watching. Hearthstone and Diablo have the same number of panels and share a space on the show floor. Overwatch has slightly more panels, and the Matt Mercer effect, and a whole area all to itself. And then WoW has even more panels and a huge hall to fill to boot. What does it mean? That's where the wild speculation comes into play.

We get into Classic speculation, what Heroes of the Storm is up to, and 30 years of Battle.net. On Diablo 5, as Liz said in the episode, we're not going to hold our breath, because we need to breathe to live.
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We got a special treat this week as our Aussie columnist and player housing enthusiast Sara Hanson joined the podcast. She walked us through a lot of the very recent changes to how certain player housing features work, and discusses some of the things the housing community is trying to uncover, like which pets do what when they're hanging out, now that we can add them. She also has strong opinions on transmog, much like the rest of our hosts, so they had to discuss both the new cash shop offerings and this month's Trading Post, which we got an advance preview of. And not only an advance preview, but this one will bring back a bunch of older offerings as well, for a Trading Post megamix.

Also something something Mythic Raiding race, or whatever. You know we're focused on the real end game, here.

We also waded through some Gamescom news, which included CD Projekt Red teaming up with Blizzard, bringing The Witcher to the Battle.net launcher — and teasing some future announcements for BlizzCon. Of course, Matt thinks this means Cyberpunk on the Battle.net launcher, but Cory isn't the only one who can huff hopium around here. But Gamescom isn't all sunshine — several projects showcased are apparently using AI heavily in their development process. If I were a sim, I would have two red minus signs above my head in Crazy Taxi's general direction right now.
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Liz, a person who has a legitimate phobia of snakes, is rather emphatically not enjoying the Coiled Isle. Now that she's had time with the patch, she can confirm that she hates it. Some areas are less snakey than others, and those are okay, but Blizzard is not her favorite set of people just now. She did admit to enjoying the green, though. Luckily, she can experience the whole thing vicariously as the Race to World First kicked off this week with the beginning of MidnightSseason 2, and the opening of the Mythic version of the Venomous Abyss raid. Several of the teams are raising money for charity through the race, including a fun one from Liquid where if you donate a certain amount, they'll post your pet's photo on stream. If anything can help Liz make it through, it's puppies.

There are also some new class sets coming to Hearthstone, which Liz is happy to explain. And read the site news! Anything, just enough with the dang snakes already.
If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!

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